Looking Back... With An Eye On The Future

Established in Boston in 1888, The Beal Companies, LLP is one of the oldest and most respected real estate investment and development firms in the region. Today, Beal is actively pursuing investments in all segments of the real estate industry. Beal acts as a principal and invests in real estate on its own behalf, and on behalf of institutional and individual partners. Beal’s core competencies include: acquisition, development, property management, construction management, consulting and brokerage of all forms of commercial and residential properties; from new construction to historic preservation. In a twelve-month period during 2006-07, Beal completed $1 billion of transactions.

The present generation of Beal began purchasing property in Cambridge and Boston in the 1960’s and 1970’s. In the latter part of the 1970’s, the firm purchased the historic Grain Exchange Building on Milk Street. This striking building is the only example of gothic architecture in downtown Boston and has won a number of awards. During this period, the company acquired other buildings in the City of Boston, purchased a strategic 9 acres of contiguous property in East Cambridge (where Beal was the first to develop incubator biotech space in the Boston/Cambridge area) and also completed a number of condominium redevelopments in both Boston and Cambridge.

In the 1980’s, The Beal Companies became the first real estate company to invest in life sciences in the suburban Boston area with the purchase of the Ledgemont Center in Lexington, then the research headquarters for Kennecott Copper. Also during the 1980’s, the company purchased and restored the historic Park Square Building, located in Boston’s Back Bay, as well as the art deco Batterymarch Building on Broad Street in the city’s Financial District. The Beal Companies won a number of awards for its refurbishment of the Custom House in partnership with Marriott Corporation. The firm continued its acquisitions, including a 36-acre property in Wakefield, further commercial development sites in Waltham and a biotech development site on Third Avenue in East Cambridge. In 2007, Beal received the Historic Preservation Award from The Boston Preservation Alliance for its redevelopment of 126-130 Beacon Street into luxury condominium residences, situated at the corner of Berkeley Street in historic Back Bay.

Over the past twenty-five years, The Beal Companies has assisted Harvard University in expanding its campus in the Allston neighborhood of Boston, working with the University to systematically acquire approximately 200 acres of land, comprising the largest assemblage of property in Boston 's history. This acquisition will allow Harvard an orderly expansion of its campus over the next 100 years and will substantially improve and redevelop this important area of the city. Beal has also assisted Harvard in the acquisition of the Arsenal on the Charles in nearby Watertown and continues to manage this historic 37-acre commercial property.